As I\u2019ve said before, I do almost all my writing in Org-mode so entering special characters is easy. I can either use the built-in Org characters or drop into TeX input mode. But, of course, I\u2019m not always in Org-mode. Sometimes I want a special character when entering a Git description\u2014most often \u2192 but occasionally others\u2014and there are other situations where I need them as well.<\/p>\n
My solution\u2014that I learned from Xah Lee\u2014is to use the abbrev system that\u2019s built into Emacs. Thus, I have the abbreviation The Emacs Cat begins each of the abbreviation keys with Take a look at The Emacs Cat\u2019s post for the details on how to set things up.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" As I\u2019ve said before, I do almost all my writing in Org-mode so entering special characters is easy. I can either use the built-in Org characters or drop into TeX input mode. But, of course, I\u2019m not always in Org-mode. … Continue reading \/ra<\/code> for \u2192. The other day, I saw this post by The Emacs Cat<\/a> on using abbrev for inputting special characters anywhere within Emacs<\/a>. It\u2019s basically the same system that I use except that I depend on hippie expand<\/a> to resolve my abbreviations rather than having them expand automatically, which I find jarring.<\/p>\n8<\/code> to avoid having accidental expansions. That\u2019s a good solution and one that many may prefer. Regardless of which method you employ, using abbrev-mode<\/code> to enter special characters that you need frequently is a win. You can always drop back to insert-char<\/code>, bound to Ctrl<\/kbd>+x<\/kbd> 8<\/kbd> Return<\/kbd>, to enter those that you don\u2019t use often.<\/p>\n